Library Websites and Homepages

I too feel that a library homepage is essential for our school libraries regardless of the size of the school or our demographics. If we are to believe Valenza's statement that the homepage is "a second front door" we need to make that front door inviting. I watch my 3-year old daughter navigate our iPad with confidence every day. She can open apps, find videos on YouTube (we have created lists of safe videos for her to watch), listen to her audio books, and play a myriad of games without our help. By the time she is in kindergarten she will have the ability to access her school's library web site, but will there be one for her to access? I hope so.

We also have to remember that our homepages and web sites are not just for our students. They are a PR tool for our communities, prospective students/families, and tools for parents of our current students. At the elementary level our web sites/homepages can offer resources for parents to help their child with study skills or be a source of fun learning games. Things like contests or trivia can introduce the concept of homepages for libraries so that these students and families will have some prior knowledge as they move up through our systems into intermediate/middle and high school.

One of the things I think we can all see through our posts on this discussion topic is that we all have different ideas about what makes a great web site. A lot of that has to do with our personal tastes and styles. I did not like the Prince of Wales site at all. I think it is too text heavy and the list of resources on their Reference Desk page is overwhelming. I would like to have seen some groupings that perhaps led to another page or some visuals to address the needs of visual learners.

I do agree that access to the library's OPAC is key - and one of the areas that my library's web site is lacking. I do also think that the homepage needs to be fun. I like the sites that have photos on their homepage, bookshelves with new acquisitions, and the sites that have surveys and links to things like movie tie-ins is also a huge plus - and something I think will appeal to students. These things are all on my library homepage.

One of the things I learned while doing research for developing my library's web site is the "three click rule." Visitors to your site should be able to find what they are looking for in three clicks of the mouse or fewer. This is actually harder to do than we think, and can sometimes result in those busy pages that many of us say we don't like.

This is my first year as the TL at my school (an 8-12 high school of 390 students) and we did not have a library web site or homepage when I first became the TL. Fortunately, one of the courses I took this fall included an assignment of designing a web site so I got mine done. I chose to use Weebly and pay for a domain name. www.hopesecondarylibrary.com  I am very pleased with the platform. Although I see this as a work in progress, I am pleased with the results so far.

The main thing my site is missing is access to our catalogue. As part of my assignment 3 I looked into the possibility of adding this and am fairly confident I will be upgrading our system for the fall of 2012. The other thing my site is missing is visitors, LOL. The reason for this is awareness. The site was created after I had done the library orientations with our students, so hopefully I can improve our site usage in the fall. We also have a Facebook page that is starting to gain some popularity with our students so I hope this will also attract attention back to the web site.